St Alban's Mummers are not a charity, and we don't collect on behalf of any charity. We don't collect for "a bellyful of beer" either.

In the time-honour'd tradition of Mummers Plays, we do invite our audiences to show their appreciation of our efforts by putting some money in the hat, or bucket, but we tell them "if you give nowt, we'll take nowt" - we're happy either way. Luckily, most people seem happy to contribute something.

The money we collect on Boxing Day is our only income, and goes first of all to the running of the mummers - we have to pay for publicity leaflets, internet, costumes etc.

Some years, our audiences are large and especially generous, and we have a surplus after our expenses have been met. When this happens we like to put the money to good use, and as a result, over the last few years we have been able to donate nearly £1000 to local charities.

The Mummers want to carry on helping the local community this way, but we don't know in advance whether we will have any money available. If our audiences continue to be as generous as of late, we will be delighted to pass on as much as we can.